BAYLISS SECOND QUICKEST FOR DUCATI XEROX AS BATTLE OF TWO
TROYS CONTINUES AT VALENCIA
Valencia (Spain), Friday 21 April: Troy Bayliss set second
quickest time for the Ducati Xerox Team as his battle with
reigning champion Troy Corser (Suzuki) continued in first
qualifying at Valencia. Just 43/100ths of a second separated
the two Australian rivals after the one-hour session while
another Aussie, Steve Martin (Petronas) and Japan’s
Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha) made up the other two slots on the
provisional front row of the grid.
“I can’t be fastest all the time but all things
considered everything is going OK” declared Troy. “We
made a couple of minor changes to the bike in Misano and everything
seemed to work quite well. When we came here the bike is so
close to what it was last time we were here but we seem to
be missing a little bit of feeling in the front. So one bike
we’re definitely going to have exactly the same tomorrow
morning and test it again, but honestly we’re going
OK and the times are good. Valencia is a bit strange in the
afternoon, you struggle for grip but on the race tyre, I’m
using the hardest one possible and it seems to be working
well. This morning I did a lot of laps on it and this afternoon
we were just making a few changes here and there. It maybe
wasn’t as good a session as it could have been but it
was OK”.
Lorenzo Lanzi improved later in the session to eighth place
but then crashed out with a couple of minutes remaining. “I
was pushing hard because tomorrow it looks as if it’s
going to rain and I wanted to be as far up the timesheets
as possible. I was doing another good time after the one that
put me into eighth place, then I crashed in the second right
hander. The front of the bike just turned in on me, I tried
to keep it up and finish the curve but there was nothing doing.
But there’s no problem and I’m not hurt”.
TIMES: 1. Corser (Suzuki) 1m34.920s; 2.
Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) 1m34.963s; 3. Martin (Petronas) 1m35.653s;
4. Haga (Yamaha) 1m35.658s; 5. Kagayama (Suzuki) 1m35.670s;
6. Xaus (Ducati) 1m35.721s; 7. Abe (Yamaha) 1m35.974s; 8.
Lanzi (Ducati Xerox) 1m35.999s; 9. Nieto (Kawasaki) 1m36.004s;
10. Foret (Suzuki) 1m36.026s; etc.
TV COVERAGE: Eurosport 2 (Pan European):
Sunday 23 April – 1205 SBK race 1 (live), 2100 SBK race
2 (delayed). Eurosport (Pan European): Sunday 23 April - 2300
SBK race 2 (delayed). La7 (Italy): Sunday 23 April –
from 1600 onwards SBK races 1+2 (delayed). Telecinco (Spain):
Sunday 23 April – 1130 SBK race 1 (live), 1530 SBK race
2 (live).
|
